2A: Migrants’ perception of the settlement experience (LSIA)
This section looks closely at how satisfied migrants feel with life in Australia using data from Waves 1 to 3 of the LSIA 1 data set. Examining recently arrived migrant satisfaction levels provides some indication about how they are settling in socially. Satisfaction with life in Australia was measured on a five point Likert scale ranging from ‘1 – Very Satisfied’ to ‘5 – Very dissatisfied’. This measure was transformed into a binary variable with 1 indicating that the immigrants were either ‘very satisfied’ or ‘satisfied’ and 0 indicating all other options including those with no opinion. Several independent variables were selected to see how they were associated with life satisfaction. These included demographic variables (age, gender, marital status, education, country of birth), visa category, relationship to primary applicant, main activity, satisfaction with life in a former country, total assets that the migrants brought to Australia, whether migrants had applied for
Australian citizenship and the time since arrival.5
Logistic regression techniques were then used to separate the effects of potentially confounding factors, so that the influence of each variable, all other things being equal, could be modelled. For example this sort of analysis allows the researcher to answer the question: Is it year of arrival, country of birth, visa category or the cash they arrived with that makes a migrant more satisfied with life in Australia? The results are presented in Table 2A.1.
There was significant variation in the level of satisfaction according to the visa category and country of birth. Those coming to Australia on a humanitarian visa appear to be more satisfied with life in Australia compared to those belonging to all other visa categories. It appears that those coming to Australia on the Concessional Family Visa were the least satisfied. Migrants born in the UK were amongst the most satisfied with life in Australia. Likewise those born in Oceania, Western and Central Europe, North, Central and South America and Africa were also more likely to be satisfied compared to those coming from the rest of the world. Those coming from China were on average the least satisfied; these migrants were four times more likely to be dissatisfied than those coming from the UK.
The demographic variables of gender and marital status were not associated with satisfaction with life in Australia. Importantly, however, primary applicants were slightly more likely to feel satisfied than their partners. Older applicants were also more likely to feel satisfied.
The human capital variables of education qualifications and employment were both associated with satisfaction with life in Australia. Those with a higher
5 Logistic regression measures were used to model satisfaction with life in Australia. Data was modelled using SAS 8.2.
degree or with trade or technical qualification were less likely to be satisfied compared to migrants whose highest qualification was twelve years of schooling. Those who were wage or salary earners or who owned their own businesses were more likely to report being satisfied compared to migrants who were engaged in other activities including the unemployed, students, and those performing home duties.
Migrants who came to Australia with more assets were also more likely to feel satisfied with life in Australia. No doubt being financially better off gives migrants a preferred start. Migrants who had applied for Australian citizenship were also more likely to feel satisfied with life in Australia. However this result was only marginally significant (p-value=0.05), and, of course, feeling satisfied with life in Australia may be a reason to apply for Australian citizenship.
Overall, after taking all other variables into consideration, migrants tended to feel slightly less satisfied with life in Australia over time. This suggests that some initial hopes have been abandoned or remain unfulfilled after a sustained period of adjustment. Satisfaction affects quality of life which in turn impacts upon the social wellbeing of individuals and the communities in which they live. For this reason, this issue of migrant satisfaction with life in Australia is explored more fully in the following section.
Table 2A. 1: Satisfaction with life in Australia (LSIA 1 Waves 1 to 3)
Odds Ratio 95% CI t P-value
|
Intercept
|
1.30
|
0.95
|
1.77
|
1.67
|
0.096
|
Visa Category
|
Preferential Family
|
0.83
|
0.71
|
0.97
|
-2.39
|
0.017
|
|
Concessional Family Business Skills & Employer Nomination
|
0.67
0.81
|
0.57
0.66
|
0.79
0.99
|
-4.74
-2.03
|
<0.001
0.042
|
|
Independent
|
0.69
|
0.58
|
0.82
|
-4.19
|
<0.001
|
|
Humanitarian (referencing category)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Country of birth
|
Oceania
|
0.78
|
0.57
|
1.08
|
-1.48
|
0.138
|
|
Southern Europe
|
0.50
|
0.41
|
0.62
|
-6.31
|
<0.001
|
|
Western Europe
|
0.82
|
0.61
|
1.09
|
-1.38
|
0.168
|
|
Northern Europe
|
1.15
|
0.75
|
1.76
|
0.63
|
0.528
|
|
Eastern Europe
|
0.57
|
0.45
|
0.73
|
-4.47
|
<0.001
|
|
Russia and other Baltic states
|
0.38
|
0.29
|
0.50
|
-6.85
|
<0.001
|
|
Middle east and north Africa
|
0.71
|
0.58
|
0.87
|
-3.27
|
0.001
|
|
Southeast Asia
|
0.61
|
0.50
|
0.73
|
-5.24
|
<0.001
|
|
Northeast Asia
|
0.25
|
0.20
|
0.30
|
-12.94
|
<0.001
|
|
Southern Asia
|
0.46
|
0.37
|
0.56
|
-7.35
|
<0.001
|
|
North America
|
1.06
|
0.77
|
1.45
|
0.36
|
0.716
|
|
Central and South America
|
0.82
|
0.64
|
1.04
|
-1.64
|
0.102
|
|
Africa (excludes North Africa)
|
0.86
|
0.70
|
1.07
|
-1.35
|
0.178
|
|
UK (referencing category)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Age
|
Age (years)
|
1.01
|
1.00
|
1.01
|
3.63
|
0.000
|
Gender
|
Female
|
1.01
|
0.91
|
1.13
|
0.20
|
0.843
|
|
Male (referencing category)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Marital status
|
Never married
|
1.04
|
0.91
|
1.19
|
0.60
|
0.546
|
|
Other(separated/divorced/widowed)
|
0.98
|
0.79
|
1.21
|
-0.17
|
0.863
|
|
Married (referencing category)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Relationship to
|
Primary applicant
|
1.17
|
1.32
|
1.03
|
2.36
|
0.018
|
primary applicant Main activity (wave 1)
|
Spouse/Defacto (referencing category)
Own business
|
0.96
|
0.74
|
1.25
|
-0.27
|
0.786
|
|
Unemployed
|
0.68
|
0.59
|
0.78
|
-5.53
|
<0.001
|
|
Student
|
0.73
|
0.63
|
0.85
|
-4.00
|
<0.001
|
|
Home duties
|
0.76
|
0.66
|
0.89
|
-3.45
|
0.001
|
|
Other
|
0.73
|
0.59
|
0.90
|
-2.99
|
0.003
|
|
Wage & salary (referencing category)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Satisfaction with life in former country
|
Satisfied
Not satisfied (referencing category)
|
1.18
|
1.07
|
1.30
|
3.43
|
0.001
|
Highest
|
Higher degree
|
0.64
|
0.56
|
0.74
|
-6.02
|
<0.001
|
qualification
|
Trade/technical
|
0.84
|
0.73
|
0.97
|
-2.37
|
0.018
|
|
Other
12+ years of School (referencing category)
|
1.14
|
0.98
|
1.31
|
1.69
|
0.090
|
Time since arrival
|
Time since arrival (years)
|
0.93
|
0.90
|
0.97
|
-3.71
|
0.000
|
Total assets
|
Total assets ($'000)
|
1.00
|
1.00
|
1.00
|
3.06
|
0.002
|
Australian
|
Yes or applied
|
1.12
|
1.00
|
1.25
|
1.92
|
0.054
|
citizen (wave 1-3)
|
No (referencing category)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Source: LSIA
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